Robinson v. State

• Decision Date: 19 September 2012
• Docket Number: No. PD–0238–11.,PD–0238–11.
• Parties: Timothy Lee ROBINSON, Appellant v. The STATE of Texas.
• Court: Texas Court of Criminal Appeals

377 S.W.3d 712

Timothy Lee ROBINSON, Appellant

v.The STATE of Texas.

No. PD–0238–11.

Court of Criminal Appeals of Texas.

Sept. 19, 2012.

Charles M. Cobb, Mount Pleasant, Charles Van Cleef, Longview, for Appellant.

John R. Messinger, Lisa C. McMinn, State's Attorney, Austin, for State.

OPINION

PRICE, J., delivered the opinion for a unanimous Court.

The appellant was convicted of possession with intent to deliver a controlled substance, namely cocaine, in the amount of 200 grams or more but less than 400 grams,¹ and the jury sentenced him to twenty years in prison with a $10,000 fine. In an unpublished opinion, the Texarkana Court of Appeals reversed his conviction, finding that, although the trial court did not abuse its discretion in denying the appellant's motion to suppress, the trial court's failure to provide a jury instruction pursuant to Article 38.23(a) of the Texas Code of Criminal Procedure was error for which the record demonstrated egregious harm, warranting remand for a new trial.² We granted the State Prosecuting Attorney's (SPA) petition for discretionary review to address its sole issue with regard to the propriety of the trial court's decision to deny an Article 38.23(a) jury instruction.

FACTS AND PROCEDURAL POSTURE

The Motion to Suppress

Prior to trial, the appellant filed a motion to suppress any and all evidence stemming from the traffic stop in this case. The appellant's motion argued, inter alia, that the traffic stop, purportedly for the failure to signal a turn at an intersection, was a pretext to justify an ongoing investigation of the appellant. The motion claimed that the arrest occurred without a warrant on the basis of a tip from an unidentified and unreliable informant and that any statements and/or recordings obtained as a product of the appellant's arrest were therefore tainted by this illegal stop. At a pre-trial hearing on the appellant's motion, the only witness was Detective Cesar Muñoz of the Mount Pleasant Police Department. The trial court denied the appellant's motion to suppress, finding that probable cause existed to justify the initial stop of the appellant and that the appellant voluntarily consented to the search that led to the discovery of the contraband.³B. The Evidence at Trial

The issue of the legality of the initial traffic stop was re-litigated during the appellant's jury trial. The jury heard that, in the early morning hours of August 25, 2008, Muñoz received an anonymous call to his cell phone. The caller informed Muñoz that a “Mr. Robinson” would be arriving back in Mount Pleasant from Dallas transporting a “large amount” of cocaine. Muñoz called Officer Simon Porter with the narcotics patrol division and informed him of the tip. The two positioned themselves in their respective police cruisers at opposite ends of the street on which the appellant's known address, 511 Margaret Drive, was located. Muñoz was parked facing eastbound at the intersection of East Eighth Street and Margaret Drive.⁴ From this vantage, Muñoz observed the appellant, who was driving a black Dodge Charger and traveling eastbound on Ninth Street, “merge” right onto Margaret Drive, and fail to use his turn signal. Muñoz activated his overhead lights to initiate a traffic stop. The appellant pulled into his driveway on Margaret Drive. Muñoz and Porter pulled up behind the appellant and, after exiting their respective patrol cars, both reported smelling burnt marijuana upon approaching the appellant's car. The appellant consented to a search of the Charger and was arrested after Muñoz discovered a bag of crack cocaine lying on the concrete driveway directly below the front passenger seat.

At issue at trial was whether the character of the roadway at the point where Ninth Street “merged” into Margaret Drive was such that a turn signal was legally required. It was Muñoz's opinion that a traffic infraction occurred when the appellant, traveling from Ninth Street to Margaret Drive, “continued to the right without turning his turn signal on[,]” which the appellant had “a duty” to do at “the intersection.” Muñoz acknowledged that there are no traffic signals or signs at this “intersection”; however, Muñoz did not waver from his position that, although the flow of traffic at this juncture could be characterized as simply “following” the roadway around onto Margaret Drive, to “turn” or “continue” onto Margaret Drive from Ninth Street without a signal is a violation of the law.

Lakeshia Williams was in the passenger seat of the appellant's car at the time of the stop. She testified during the appellant's case-in-chief that, “[i]f you turn left” from Ninth Street onto Margaret Drive, “you have to put a signal on”; whereas to “turn right, you [are] just going around the corner” as Ninth Street “curves” into Margaret Drive. She also acknowledged that there are no traffic signs or signals at this “curve” to indicate that it is an intersection at which a person must use a turn signal; “You just go.” Williams conceded, however, that, unlike Muñoz, she was not a peace officer and that she had no extensive knowledge or experience with the traffic laws. ⁵

C. The Jury Charge Conference

The trial court held a charge conference on the record to permit defense counsel to raise his objections to the court's proposed charge. The appellant objected to the absence of an instruction under Article 38.23(a) of the Code of Criminal Procedure, specifically requested such an instruction, and asked the trial court reconsider its ruling on his pre-trial motion to suppress the evidence obtained as a result of the traffic stop.⁶ The tendered instruction would have directed the jury to determine whether the appellant was “required to use a turn signal[.]” ⁷ The trial court overruled the appellant's objection, declinedto submit his requested instruction, and refused to revisit its ruling on the motion to suppress.

D. On Direct Appeal

After the jury convicted him, the appellant raised two related issues on appeal with respect to the legality of the traffic stop. First, he argued that the trial court erred in failing to grant his motion to suppress the evidence obtained as a result of that stop. Second, he argued that the trial court erred in refusing his requested Article 38.23(a) jury instruction. As to the suppression issue, the appellant argued that he had not executed a “turn” at an “intersection,” ⁸ despite Muñoz's “unsupported” characterization of the roadway, and therefore, he was not legally required to use his turn signal. For this reason, he maintained, the traffic stop was unjustified. With regard to the jury instruction issue, the appellant pointed to three contested issues of fact that he claimed were raised by the evidence at trial that entitled him to an Article 38.23(a) instruction.

The State countered the appellant's suppression issue by arguing that the trial court did not abuse its discretion in denying the motion to suppress because the appellant's failure to signal violated the Transportation Code and/or the Mount Pleasant city ordinances, and, in any event, Muñoz's reasonable belief that the appellant was required to signal was sufficient to initiate a traffic stop without the State having to satisfy a burden to prove that a traffic offense was actually committed. In response to the Article 38.23(a) jury instruction issue, the State directly disputed that the three fact issues the appellant identified were genuinely contested at trial, or, perhaps more importantly, even amounted to issues of historical fact, as distinguished from questions of law that are properly reserved for determination by the trial court.

The court of appeals, although disagreeing with the appellant that the trial court abused its discretion in denying his motion to suppress,⁹ nevertheless reversed the appellant's conviction on the jury charge issue. Applying the three-step test that this Court laid out in Madden v. State,¹⁰ the court of appeals first found that the appellant had indeed raised a “disputed issue of historical fact[,]” namely, whether a reasonable officer would have concluded that the appellant's conduct amounted to a traffic violation. Second, the court of appeals determined that the appellant presented affirmative evidence of this disputed historical fact; and third, the court of appeals found this issue to be material to the lawfulness of the initial detention.¹¹ Concluding that the trial court therefore erred in failing to submit an Article 38.23(a) instruction, the court of appeals determined that the error was not harmless because, in the absence of such an instruction, the State was relieved of its burden to establish the reasonableness of the traffic stop and the jury was never made aware of the effect an illegal stop would have on the admissibility of evidence obtained as a result.¹² The court of appeals remanded the cause to the trial court for further proceedings not inconsistent with its opinion.

The SPA petitioned this Court for discretionary review, raising only the issue of whether the reasonableness of Muñoz's belief that a turn signal was necessary constitutes an issue of historical fact to be submitted to the jury in the form of an Article 38.23(a) instruction. We granted review of the SPA's sole issue to assess the proper role of the jury under an Article 38.23(a) instruction.

ANALYSIS

The SPA argues in its brief to this Court that there were no disputed issues of fact presented at trial that would entitle the appellant to an Article 38.23(a) instruction to the jury; and because the jury is not permitted to answer questions of law, whether Muñoz believed that the law required the appellant to signal at the point at which Ninth Street “merges” with Margaret Drive was not an appropriate question for the jury. The SPA identifies the “material fact” in this case as “the configuration of the meeting of Ninth and Margaret,” but argues that this fact was not actually disputed at trial.¹³...